Friday, May 21, 2010

The liberation of Goa from the Portuguese rule was a major event of the 1960's (with the liberation happening in 1961 through a combination of Portuguese losing the impulse to stay, the effort of local freedom fighters and the pressure of the Indian army). This was also captured in multiple movies, such as Pukar, and this movie Saat Hindustani. Saat Hindustani was also famous since it was the debut movie of the superstar, Amitabh Bachchan, who has gone on to stride the Indian film scene as its supreme leading star. The movie was not particularly exciting, even though it covered an incident such as a freedom struggle, but it was inspiring in terms of nationalism. The movie won an award for National Integration in 1970, and Amitabh Bachchan won the award for Best Newcomer for his portrayal of the shy Muslim poet who seems to be somewhat wrongly chosen for the role of a freedom fighter, with his portrayal of first shirking away when a Portuguese spy is killed.

The movie was directed by the famed poet KA Abbas (Khwaja Ahmad Abbas). The movie takes the life in flashback of seven Indians who are out to destroy some symbols of Portuguese rule in Goa, such that it will shake the occupiers, and also show the local inhabitants that the people of India are with them and will make efforts to help them in their fight against the Portuguese. The movie combines many elements of a patriotic movie, such as people from different religions and ethnicities coming together, inspired by the chance to prove their patriotism and nationalism.
However, the movie starts in a hospital. Maria is in a hospital, with the doctor prescribing an operation to overcome the dangerous ill-effects she suffered in a Portuguese prison in Goa, but she wants to delay the operation by a week in order to send out telegrams to her former 6 companions, who are located in different parts of the country, with many of them having current feelings that are not so nationalistic anymore.
These people are;
Subodh Sanyal, a football referee from Calcutta (played by Madhu)
From Punjab, the farmer, Joginder (Utpal Dutt along with Dina Pathak as his wife)
Mahadevan (Irshad Ali), a Dalit from Madras, who is now an anti-Hindi believer
Ram Bhagat Sharma (Anwar Ali) from Benaras
The Urdu Poet Anwar Ali ‘Anwar’ (Amitabh Bachchan, in his debut role), from Ranchi. A proponent of Urdu, and anti-Hindi.
And then one person who is not driven by these differences, Sakharam Shinde (Jalal Agha), from Maharastra. He is a member of a local dance group.
All of these people were inspired to go into Goa, where they met Maria. Their aim was to enter Goa and then take over some police stations, and put the Indian flag on top of them. The rest of the movie is not very interesting, but still worth as a watch for being the debut movie of Amitabh Bachchan.